Artists from over 52 Countries Will Enter the 13th Havana Biennial

Under the title ‘The Construction of What is Possible’ dedicated to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the founding of the city, the event will include 12 large collective projects in addition to numerous individual creations in public galleries and private centers; as well as collateral expositions that reinforce its characteristic inclusivity.

The Biennial is an event for the thought and dialogue of artists from different generations, assured the executive media director of the event, Jorge Alfonso, during his press briefing.

Among the institutional headquarters of the event is the Center of Contemporary Art Wilfredo Lam, the Cuba Pavilion, the House of the Americas, the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Photograph Gallery of Cuba, and several other spaces belonging to the Historian Office of Havana.

Furthermore, there will be activities along six kilometers on two fundamental arteries in the city: the streets Línea and Malecón (waterfront avenue).

Many of the projects will contribute to transforming these sites into great artistic corridors and will not only involve the plastic arts but also theatre, literature, music, dance, photography, film, engineering, cultural traditions, and others whose association contributes to the revitalization of different public spaces.

Mexican creator Tania Candiani works in one resonating action with Cuban students of songwriting and of the Solfa Choir of the Schola Cantorum Coralina, meanwhile 10 contemporary Chinese artists will bring an exhibition to the Grand Theatre of Havana Alicia Alonso that is a manifesto of the experimental changes in the art of their country in the last three decades.

The principal criteria to be selected to participate in the 13th Biennial is that there must be artistic inclination present, underlined Alfonso.

The event will extend to certain places in Cuban provinces such as Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritu and Camaguey, while in Havana, the National Museum of Fine Arts will host theoretical programs every Tuesday, throughout the month.

Artists from Argentina, Panamá, Spain, Uruguay, Colombia and Portugal will host a dialogue around practices in artistic-cultural constructions, modern postulates, and the impact of the public, among many other topics.

The Biennial is the most important international event of the performed visual arts in Cuba and since its emergence in 1984 it has attracted to the island important contemporary creators around proposals for socio-cultural values.

Some 35 years ago, the event was organized with a Latin American calling but it immediately grew, extended its gaze to the whole world and today it brings to Havana creators from the five continents.